Lord of the Reels

The Last Starfighter Movie Review

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The Last Starfighter was a really……interesting movie. That’s to say that while I really liked this film, I do think it could be improved upon. HOWEVER, I feel that I’m getting ahead of myself.
The Last Starfighter, is a cult classic 1980’s science fiction adventure movie directed by Nick Castle (who originally played Michael Meyers/The Shape in the first Halloween movie as well as writing Escape from New York) and stars Lance Guest (from Halloween 2). The film, is about a simple video game/arcade geek who lives in dullsville USA. However, after scoring a record breaking high score, suddenly he’s whisked away by aliens and must solve an intergalactic war.

One of the main draws to this film, is the contrast of the everyman appeal of Lance Guest juxtaposed with the epic nature and scale of the intergalactic war and many alien races. So many 1980’s films have dabbled heavily in using CGI; HOWEVER, this film is extremely excessive in it to the point of coating it in overwhelming crappy special effects. Nevertheless, like I previously said, the main draw of this film is the loveable characters and epic storyline.

Most film geeks, have frequently undervalued and undermined remakes and reboots. However, I feel that The Last Starfighter would be the ideal classic 1980’s movie to be remade. While the story is epic, yet intimate and timeless, it is also sadly lessened by aforementioned dated special effects. I feel that if a film maker of today with a love of classic science fiction and were supported by someone with that same love (like JJ Abrams or Edgar Wright perhaps?), but with the modern CGI of today. Then it could be the start of an amazing new space opera series (especially thanks to the success of Guardians of The Galaxy).

So at the end of the day, it’s a fun, all be it endearingly cheesy 1980’s classic, well worth a watch, before its inevitable remake/reboot. This has been Lawrence Gaines, from Lord of The Reels, as always inviting you to enjoy and share the love.

If I were a Carpenter: A tribute to John Carpenter Part One: I Remember Halloween

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Halloween poster

What can I say about John Carpenter? He’s a captivating master of suspense, innovative musician and brilliant film maker with ideas FAR ahead of his time. In a word he was a marvel.

What made him so great though? Why do I feel that he is one of the greatest and most original,  important and revolutionary film makers of all time? Read on dear reader and let me enlighten you.

Ah the 1970’s what a great time for cinema from edgy character pieces like Taxi Driver, Five Easy Pieces and more to grind house pictures like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Dawn of the Dead and others it was clear that cinema and it’s audience was changing and in 1978 a young film maker from New York would make a film that would slice through the conventions of Hollywood, pop culture and the world would never be the same.

That film was Halloween a movie that wasn’t the first slasher movie but it sure as hell popularized it. John Carpenter came from a generation of film makers nicknamed “The Movie Brats”. They were a bunch of film makers in the 1970’s who worked outside of the studio system members of “The Movie Brats” included directors like Martin Scorsese, Tobe Hooper, Dennis Hopper, Francis Ford Copola and MANY others. This worked to Halloween’s advantage because the 1970’s was a decade that really seemed to want to make a name for it’s self with it’s ballsier film releases and no truer is that prevalent then in Halloween Carpenter’s masterpiece about a young man who killed his sister on Halloween in 1963, fifteen years later he’s back and god help whoever is in his way.

Halloween as I have previously stated is a masterpiece and is essential viewing for anyone at all interested in film making. From it’s captivating performances by Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode a girl tormented by Michael Meyers, Donald Plesance as Dr. Samuel Loomis Michael Meyers’ therapist and the largely under rated Nick Castle as Michael Meyers/The Shape it’s self.

I feel that Halloween is a masterpiece because of it’s ability to sustain an audience’s attention with it’s brilliant simplicity. If I pitched the movie to you saying “hey do you want to watch a movie about a crazy guy who stalks and kills off babysitters”? You’d probably think that it’s the most generic kind of horror schlock ever even in the 1970’s and “you go to hell for suggesting that Gaines”. But I feel that’s the great thing about Halloween that within that level of simplicity it is a story that has been done to death but I think that Carpenter turns something simple into exceptional because you never get to know who Michael Meyers/The Shape is you don’t even know if they’re human.

That’s what I feel is terrifying it’s like a ghost or demon in human form representing the evil of mankind or the unknown just at the edge of our pleasant seemingly little suburban heaven.  He turns the ordinary and mundane into the mundane and knows EXACTLY how to shoot that and edit that to build the perfect amount of suspense like a concerto of carnage and murder and thrills. Speaking of concertos (SEGWAY AHOY!) another thing that makes this film exceptional is like the film it’s self the score to it especially it’s theme song is simple but terrifyingly powerful I mean you can’t tell me that while it MAY not give you the chills you can associate it with a creepy movie just from the first few chords.

IT’S JUST A PIANO but it’s SO captivating, terrifying and seemingly suffocating with emotion and simplicity simultaneously. However I feel that that’s enough for now. Tune in later this week for part two of this editorial series with aliens, Satan and Kurt Russell oh my!

Mystery Monday: How James Cameron’s The Terminator is his version of Friday the 13th

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To start with let me just say I adore the ever loving living s*** out of this movie. Why you may ask? Not ONLY is it a classic and vastly inspirational science fiction, horror film, not only is it paramount viewing for ANYONE wanting to get into practical effects, NOT ONLY does it have an amazing theme song and electronic score by Brad Fidel (who later went on to score another favorite film of mine Fright Night), but, the most important reason to me as to why The Terminator is awesome is, I feel it’s James Cameron’s version of Friday the 13th film.

Now I know that this may be a stretch, BUT HEAR ME OUT, as I’ve stated in a previous article on moviepilot.com (http://moviepilot.com/posts/2014/03/07/how-no-country-for-old-men-is-a-modern-take-on-halloween-1266905?lt_source=external,manual#!Ul8xf), I argued that The Coen Brothers movie No Country For Old Men, was their version of Halloween. However, while that may be a stretch to some; I feel that I made a strong argument for my opinion and now here’s another.

I feel that The Terminator, like Jason is an unstoppable killing machine, but unlike Michael Meyers (or what Michael Meyers was supposed to be in the early films) he (like Anton Chigur in No Country For Old Men), is just a human. Where as Jason, on the other hand, evolved from being a human, to a zombie, to a cyborg. That cyborg comparison proves my point, Jason, like The Terminator purely exists to kill. While Michael Meyers represented a certain emptiness, or lack of empathy with man where as Jason, like the Terminator has no link what so ever to his humanity (after his drowning and his mother was killed cemented this completely).

Keep in mind, we’re just talking about the first Terminator here, when “Ahnold”, played the bad ass T800 not that  T850 flowers and sunshine father figure crap from Terminator 2 (as well as the first continuity of Friday the 13th pre Jason Goes to Hell because JASON ISN’T IN IT). HOWEVER, the comparisons don’t end with the main character alone. Like the best Halloween movies, the setting and characters are more timeless, representing the fact that the evil of Michael Meyers and evil within humanity is eternal. HOWEVER, much like Friday the 13th the movie, The Terminator is EXTREMELY 80’s cementing it’s self within the decade with it’s soundtrack, neon soaked setting and hair and clothes. I hope that this argument makes sense and has valid points and isn’t too opinionated or scattered. Thank You for reading and enjoy your week.

Slacker Saturday: High Fidelity and Clerks Review

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So it’s time for my first double review or double feature cult movie review or what have you. ANYWHO why did I choose these two specifically for my first double feature review?

Honestly it’s because while not only do I consider these two exceptional comedic drama movies but they’ve also really inspired and influenced me and made me the cinematic buffoon I am today and I consider both of them the bible/autobiography of the 20 something male in terms of what males of the protagonists ages (although John Cusack older then his 20’s) are going through on  a personal level.

Clerks of course centers around two underachieving lazy clerks one at a convenience store and the other at a VHS store. Like Clerks High Fidelity’s characters are underachievers pondering their position in their lives while at the same time seem fairly set in their pop culture ridden world of working at a record store (which as a fellow vinyl collector I can very much relate to).

I think both spoke to me on a very personal and primal level about manhood and coming of age without having some sort of cinematic MacGuffin to get me to do so rather a sense of sort of self propulsion of seeing where I am in life and where I want to be and going from there. I LOVE being lazy and unmotivated I LOVE it but these movies helped me to see my inner potential especially the story behind Clerks of a lazy bastard like myself becoming an exceptional film maker with just a dream and a passion.

However in High Fidelity’s case I also greatly relate to the characters in terms of failures and inability to accept responsibility for my screw ups in relationships that I’ve misguidedly messed up helping me to realize that I I was the one who screwed up. Also on a more aesthetic level I envy the hell out of the writing on both of them and the soundtracks are spectacular so I couldn’t recommend either of them higher.

Freaky Friday Review: Halloween

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Halloween is an impeccably AMAZING film and one of the best movies ever made. I’m not even just speaking as a fan boy but as a movie fan and I think that not only is it an incredible horror film but is also an ESSENTIAL piece of cinema in the history of film.

So why do I make that claim? It’s because this film is not just the progenitor of the slasher movie genre (although not the official first slasher that honor would either go to Psycho or Peeping Tom). It’s also one of the best directed movies of all time as well as being a zero to hero story of  a director who made an independent low budget film which launched an entire sub genre.

So what made this slasher movie so revolutionary? Multiple reasons I feel, firstly it established “the rules” of most horror/slasher films to come including “drugs equal death”, “only the virgin or most conservative (usually female) character survives” and more. John Carpenter also proves his exceptional skill as a director creating perfect tension by transforming the drab normalcy of typical suburbia into a terrifying nightmare neighborhood from hell.

The music and score is also brilliant also by John Carpenter and truly helps to establish an abysmal and intense atmosphere. Finally the characters of Michael Meyers are brilliantly written in their simplicity as they’re both the dark and light halves of their universe and while they’re both technically under developed but seem to work.

So all in all as I’ve said Halloween is not just one of my personal favorite films but also essential modern cinema so I can’t recommend this film high enough.

Theatrical Thursday Review: The Big Lebowski

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The Big Lebowski is in a word a masterpiece. It is one of those films that can perfectly be enjoyed on the same level weather inebriated or sober and features brilliant writing, acting, music and direction. So why was it never even NOMINATED for any Oscar?

That question has always been incredibly perplexing to me that such a brilliant film such as The Big Lebowski never one an Oscar. Could The Academy be so shallow that they wouldn’t nominate a stoner film for ANYTHING? Even if it is one of the best movies of all time? I dunno maybe I’m just tired and cranky but it’s so amazing damn it!

ANYWAYS what’s the movie about? The film stars Jeff Bridges as a lazy under achieving stoner living and bowling in the early 1990’s caught up in a kidnapping case. One of the MANY things I LOVE about The Big Lebowski is it’s a seemingly genreless tribute to so many different genres; it’s a comedy, it’s a western, it’s film noir, it’s a stoner movie, it’s a meditative existential think piece, it’s SO many f***ing AMAZING things!

It also pulls off all of those genres and subgenres PERFECTLY. So why no Oscar? I think like most Coen Brothers movies it’s an important film not just to analyze but rematch in it’s entirety. I feel that The Big Lebowski is an experience and an adventure and to pick it apart piece by piece and scene by scene (as I’ve herd The Academy is known to do) is impossible one must simply “buy the ticket and take the ride” and simply enjoy the adventure.

What an adventure it is as well with so many eternally relevant and exceptionally written quotes that I know by heart and will never forget. That also goes for the movie too I’ll never forget what an incredible experience I have whenever I watch it without it ever getting old. Isn’t that the best thing that you can say about a film or any piece of media?

Whatever Weds The American Season 2 Review

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The-Americans-Season-2-Poster

The Americans is an amazing show with the most morally reprehensible characters next to Game of Thrones. The show is set in the early 1980’s and centers on a family where the parents are actually KGB sleeper agents living next door to a devout American FBI agent investigating Russians in America. The show is incredibly tense with nail biting suspense and multidimensional all be it morally terrible people across the board.

The titular Americans are Elizabeth and Phillip Jennings just your ordinary everyday pleasant neighbors….who as mentioned are secretly bad ass KGB agents working to bring down the American way while slowly but surely getting sucked into it. The show is ASTONISHING as it really shows realistically what people would do for their country and patriotism in the face of betraying their morals for The Americans AND The Russians.

The show also is incredibly tense feeling in my mind as if Hitchcock himself made a perfectly crafted 1980’s spy movie and the cinematography is beautiful and is a perfect throwback to that of an awesome 70’s/80’s movie. Finally the show has an AWESOME 80’s soundtrack which I cannot recommend high enough and that goes for the show too. So if you want top notch Hitchcockian spy action and dubious duplicitous characters there are few shows I can recommend higher.

TV Tuesday Supernatural Season 9 and Finale Review

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Supernatural Season 9 poster

Oh Supernatural what a topsy turvey show you are. From the highest highs like seasons 2-5 (which I consider the greatest TV arch or all time) to a ho hum sixth season, terrible seventh and not to shabby eighth season. Suffice to say though season nine had a lot to live up to now that the show was back to being almost as good as it was with Kripke as a main guy on it.

So did this season fulfill what it was seemingly promising?  Like much of Supernatural after Kripke it does and doesn’t. While we were promised an epic Angels VS Demons VS humans WAR what we got was interesting but FAR less grandiose and instead we get ANOTHER addiction story which season four did WAY better and more Sam and Dean whining.

ON THE OTHER HAND it did really spend time fleshing out  the non Sam and Dean characters like Crowley, Metatron and Castiel (however as bad ass as she was I felt Abandon was a bit under developed) and ending an arch that I felt had gone on FAR too long.   So let’s discuss how it all ended shall we?

Without giving away anything I loved the ending plot twist and how they resolved both the heaven sub plot as well as the brilliant way that Castiel out thought Metatron. I also loved the conclusion of Dean’s story line of the season and thought that they PERFECTLY left an amazing cliff hanger.  As it obviously should be given the paramount  nature of season finales it’s difficult to discuss it without giving away any spoilers HOWEVER I do highly recommend this finale if you’re sticking with the season you’ll be more then rewarded for a hohum season.

Mystery Monday: Blood Simple Review

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Blood simple is an INCREDIBLE movie while it may not be my favorite Coen Brothers film (that honor would belong to either The Big Lebowski or No Country For Old Men) it is however a paramount staple of cinema which goes to show how masterful the Coens are at their craft.  This like most of the best Coen brother films has fascinating multidimensional characters, innovative cinematography, brilliant plot twists, shady vicious villains and more. Blood Simple was released in American theaters January 18th 1985 and is the Coen Brothers’ first film. The thing that I love the most about Blood Simple is there are no clear cut heroes or villains all of the characters have their own sins and vices which is refreshing in this cinematic world of clear cut heroes and villains. It’s hard to discuss this movie without giving anything away because there’s a plethora of amazing twist that come as fast as bullets. However I will discuss what I loved, the writing was impecible, the characters as I’ve mentioned are multidimensional, flawed and fascinating characters. Barry Sonnenfeld’s exceptional cinematography of Texas and inovative and just plain cool camera angles is one (especially one where the camera goes over a drunk passed out guy’s head in a bar) and exceptional acting all round (especially from Frances McDormand and M. Emmet Walsh). So while again this isn’t my favorite Coen Brothers movie it is definitely a film that I couldn’t recommend enough. Enjoy.

My Top 100 Movies Part 2 (26-50)

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26. Raiders of the lost ark

27. The Last Crusade

28. Catch Me If You Can

29. Schindler’s List

30. Taxi Driver

31. Monster Squad

32. Brick

33. The Brothers Bloom

34. Dazed and Confused

35. Chasing Amy

36. Clerks

37. The Empire Strikes Back

38. Big Trouble in Little China

39. True Romance

40. Vertigo

41. Maniac Cop 

42. Friday the 13th part 4

43. Maniac Cop 2

44. Friday the 13th part 6

45. Friday the 13th (reboot)

46. Jason X

47. Raising Arizona

48. No Country For Old Men

48. Fargo

49. The Big Lebowski

50. Blood Simple

My 100 Favorite Movies in No Order Part One (1-25)

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1. Halloween

2. Halloween 2

3. Halloween 3

4. Star Trek Beyond

5. Taking of Pelham 123 (70’s)

6. Scream

7. Scream 2

8. Scream 4

9. The Endless

10. X2

11. X-Men First Class

12. Boogie Nights

13. There Will Be Blood

14. Spiderman 2

15. Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle

16. The Dark Knight

17. The Nice Guys

18. Serenity

19. Get Out

20. Hot Tub Time Machine

21. How to Talk to Girls at Parties

22. Fellowship of the Ring

23. The Two Towers

24. The Return of the King

25. Return of the Living Dead

My Top Eighteen Favorite Slasher films in no particular order

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1. Halloween

2. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

3. Nightmare on Elm Street

4. Nightmare on Elm Street 3

5. Nightmare on Elm Street 6

6. Nightmare on Elm Street 7

7. Happy Birthday to Me

8. Friday the 13th Part 3

9. Friday the 13th Part 4

10. Friday the 13th Part 5

11. Friday the 13th Part 6

12. Scream

13. Scream 2

14. Hell Night

15. Freddy VS Jason

16. Final Destination 2

17. Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

18. New Year’s Evil

My Top Fifteen Most Under Rated/Guilty Pleasure Movies

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Top Gun

Hot Tub Time Machine

Spider-man 3

Superman Returns

Grandma’s Boy

Punisher: War Zone

Crank 2: High Voltage

Buffy The Vampire Slayer

In The Name of The King

Gremlins 2

Daredevil: The Director’s Cut

Urban Legend

Jackie Brown

Sky High

My Top Fourteen Favorite Superhero Movies

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1. Superman II

2. The Dark Knight

3. Super

4. X Men 2

5. Punisher War Zone

6. Spiderman 2

7. Daredevil DIRECTORS CUT ONLY

8. Unbreakable

9. The Avengers

10. Spiderman

11. Darkman

12. Captain America: The Winter Solider

13. The Toxic Avenger

14. The Rocketeer

My Top Fourteen Favorite Directors

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1. Stanley Kuberick

Stanley Kuberick
2. Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock
3. Christopher Nolan

Christopher Nolan
4. Steven Spielberg

spielberg
5. Rian Johnson

Rian_Top_10_original
6. Steven Sodenburg

Steven-Soderbergh
7. John Carpenter (Only up to Into The Mouth of Madness)

John Carpenter
8. David Fincher

David Fincher
9. The Coen Brothers

Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
10. Joss Whedon

joss-whedon-portrait
11. John Hughes (only up to the 90’s)

JohnHughes
12. Quintin Tarintino

Tarintino

13. Richard Linklater

Richard Linklater

14. Paul Thomas Anderson

Paul Thomas Anderson

 

15. James Gunn

James Gunn

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